Back to School Morning Smoothies

Getting back into the fall routine always has mixed emotions. Part of me laments the end of our free and easy summer days, the hot temperatures of course but mostly just the freedom in the structure of our days. Another part looks forward to the routine again and getting back on track with my health routines which get tossed aside a bit in the summer fun – replaced by other activities as they should.

Our home is about to kick into full action with school, work, sports, music and everything else that crops up so September becomes a great time to implement new habits that will fuel us for all this action.

To give us the super powered energy we need to do everything we love we are going to start the day green… or with veggies of some kind to give us a clean energy boost.

Here are some of the benefits of green smoothies in case you are still on the fence…

Benefits of Green Smoothies for Breakfast

Increased Energy
Raw Foods are already broken down so the vitamins and nutrients are easily absorbed and can go straight to your blood stream. They basically give us the nutrients and energy of the foods without slowing us down with the touch digestive part.

Focus and Mental Clarity
Super charge your brain without caffeine. The energy hit you get will last you long in the morning. I usually save half to drink partway through the morning at my desk and that keep my brain active all day.

Immune Boosting
When we pack our smoothies with veggies that are rich in chlorophyll this helps to cleanse the blood, remove toxins from the body and strengthens cells against infection. Plus the Vitamin content of the fruits and veggies help to ward off colds and infections.

Helps with Weight Loss
Filling without empty calories. Watch the fruit to veggie ratio if this is your motivation and blend your smoothies with coconut water instead of nut milks.

To make this habit stick we need to be prepared. Have a plan and don’t get too crazy with all the different amazing recipes out there. Pick one or two for a week; the some one every day for a VATA like me would drive me crazy. But waking up and trying to figure out what to put in and then not having the right ingredients would just mean it’s not going to happen.

When I surf the web to look for new inspiration for our mornings here are the criteria they need to pass to make it on our list:

Easy (sometimes I don’t put in everything they call for… simpler is better for us)

Quick

Taste good

Have some staying Power

Not just fruit….

Here’s our plan for the next couple of weeks:
Alternating these each day to get get extra nutrients and not get bored with them…

Weekly Plan for Back to School Morning Smoothies

Green Warrior Protein Smoothie – I’ll skip the algae oil on this one – don’t have it and that might be beyond what I can get away with for the family.. Feel free to modify any recipe to what your family will tolerate.